University of Virginia Library

Parietals

May I second your conclusions
on the first year parietal issue.

Many of the administrators at
this University have been, and are
now, deluding themselves by
believing that "a proper balance in
regards o the social, academic, and
personal privacy demands of
individual students" (in the words
of Vice-President Williams) has
been achieved. Telling oneself that
this is the case does not make it so.
One has only to look at the parietal
vote of the first year class (1423 to
59 for the First Year Council
proposal) to see that the great
majority of students disagree with
Mr. Williams appraisal of the
situation.

The First Year Council
President, Charles Musson, and
myself, as well as the entire First
Year Council, have repeatedly made
clear to administrators our reasons
for believing that the present
regulations do not provide this
"proper balance." The
administration has yet to even
address itself to the points which
we have made. The problem is not
so much that they have refused our
request; It is more a matter that
they have not begun to adequately
answer any of our arguments.

At the end of one of our
discussions with Vice-President
Williams on parietals, I confronted
him with the proposition that he
had successfully evaded answering
everything we had presented. Mr.
Williams then included that we
had reached a basic and
irreconcilable "difference in
philosophy." May I suggest that we
will never solve the problems at this
University if administrators insist
upon debating philosophy rather
than reasonable and logical
arguments.

This is the first time that we in
the First Year Council have ridden
the administrative merry-go-round
for any considerable length of time,
and, to say the least, it was not a
pleasurable experience, an
experience we hope will not be
repeated. For it is time the
administration ceased playing
games and started reasonably
discussing the vital issues at hand.